World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, 24 March 2024, continues with the theme “Yes! We can end TB”. TB is still one of the world’s deadliest diseases and recent years have seen a worrying increase in drug-resistant TB.
World TB Day is an opportunity to renew commitment, inspire and take action to end TB. Following the United Nations High-level Meeting on TB in September 2023, WHO/Europe is encouraging:
- investment
- the uptake of the latest WHO recommendations
- adoption of innovations
- involvement of civil society organizations.
In the WHO European Region our focus continues to be on scaling up active efforts to find TB, ensuring the provision of preventative TB treatment for people at high risk, increasing access to quality-assured rapid diagnosis of TB and achieving full uptake of highly effective, safe and short treatment regimens for TB and drug-resistant TB. The latest treatment regimens are people-centred, making it easier for patients to continue with their lives while undergoing treatment, with no injections and minimal hospitalization.
24 March is the anniversary of the day in 1882 when the bacterium causing TB was first discovered. The latest surveillance report on TB in the European Region, which is issued jointly by WHO/Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, will be released in the preceding week.